Analyst Warns of Tablet Bubble

The market for tablet PCs may be in danger of flooding with a wave of manufacturers rolling out devices in a bid to follow the success of the Apple iPad. JPMorgan on Wednesday warned of the risk of a bubble in tablet PC production this year.

An analyst with the firm wrote, "We think that this potential risk increased after the introduction of Apple's iPad 2. In our view, the technical and form factor improvements of the iPad 2 stand to make it tougher for the first generation of competitive offerings to play catch-up, meaning actual shipments could fall well short of plan."

He added, "We do not think the first generation of tablet offerings from the Apple wannabes will be enough to drive incremental purchasers within vendors' projections."

Tablet production is on track to jump from 15 million units last year to 81 million this year, some 40 percent higher than the expected demand of 47.9 million, the analyst said.

Motorola launched its Xoom late last month, and Samsung has been selling the Galaxy Tab since last year. ViewSonic unveiled its ViewPad last week, while Research In Motion's BlackBerry PlayBook is expected to debut either this month or next month. Hewlett Packard will roll out the TouchPad this summer, and Toshiba, LG and Acer are developing their own tablets.